Great Crusade
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: The Great Crusade had begun. Humanity would be reunited under the rule of the Emperor, and all would embrace the Imperial Truth. Whether they liked it or not...


**Great Crusade**

Being stationed on H'klan was little better than guard duty. And Brother Serris was sick of it.

He'd been sick of it a month ago. He'd been sick of it a week ago. He'd been sick of it yesterday, and by Horus and the Emperor, he was sick of it today. He was sick of standing on the walls of the Imperial garrison that overlooked H'klan's capital city, towering over even its tallest skyscrapers. He was sick of watching the men and women of the Imperial Army go about their work like some overprotective parent. And most of all, he was sick of reading of the glories of the Luna Wolves dozens of light years away, liberating the Ch'ang and Pelennor systems from orks. More than once, he'd looked up at the stars, and imagined the glories that could be his, if he and his company hadn't been assigned to this place. That right now, there was a human that needed saving, or a xenos that needed killing, and neither would see his hand or his bolt. He knew it was temporary. He knew that thanks to the blessings of the primarch's gene seed, he had centuries of life ahead of him, provided he did not fall in battle. And yet still…

Still he hated it. Just standing here, on the walls of the fortress, overlooking a city of 6 million, on a planet of 7 billion. H'klan had been settled millennia ago by spacecraft that pre-dated the warp drive. By some miracle, their planet had escaped the worst of the warp storms that had consumed this part of the galaxy, but xenos rampages as well. When the Luna Wolves had arrived here a month ago, their greatest foe were humans who considered Terra a myth, and upon learning that mankind's mythological homeworld was real, had still wanted nothing to do with it. A quick show of force from the primarch later, and the planet had capitulated with minimal casualties. All that remained now was to bring them into the fold. Same as Luna, same as Mars, same as Cthonia.

_Hence, guard duty_. Serris knelt down, picked up a rock that looked like a pebble in his gauntleted hand, and tossed it over the side. Considering that he was six-hundred and seven metres above the ground, and that this world had gravity of 1.1g, then he figured that the stone should hit the ground in-

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

He glanced at the newly arrived battle brother, walking over the ramparts in the same armour as he. All thoughts of gravity and height fled his mind. "Callaston," he murmured.

"Am I interrupting you?"

Serris laughed bitterly. "We're glorified guardsmen Callaston, how could you possibly interrupt me?"

"Who knows? The inner workings of your mind are yours alone to know."

Serris winced. All his life, he'd despised flower language. Having never seen a flower until he arrived at this world, he'd come to dislike the language even more. Before the coming of the Emperor, it had been kill or be killed on Terra, as barbarians roamed its wastes. The people of Mars had an unhealthy fixation with machines as far as he was concerned, but there'd been much to admire about their no-nonsense attitude to life, which one needed to survive on the red planet. The Emperor might have talked the language of flowers, but unlike so many people he'd known (most of them dead by now), the Emperor had backed them up. He'd given him strength, given him purpose, given him a true father with the primarch, whom Serris would have given his life for. And now?

"You didn't answer my question," Callaston said. "Isn't it magnificent?"

And now he was dying in peace rather than living in war. Truly 'magnificent.'

"Serris?"

"The city?" he asked. He supposed he might as well play the game to its end. "Yes, it's…nice, I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"What do you want of me Callaston? A poem? Do I look like one of those scribes within the emperor's soon to be palace?"

Callaston chuckled. "Soon to be? Have you seen the size of that thing?"

"No. And it matters not." He gestured to the west, to the setting sun, in the lack of any visible stars. "The Emperor is up there, fighting the same battles as our primarch. When the time comes to retire to the palace, it will be only when mankind is united, and xenos have been driven to the fringes of the galaxy."

"Not eradicated completely?" Callaston asked.

There was a tone in Callaston's voice that Serris didn't like. Nevertheless, he murmured, "whatever it takes for victory."

"Whatever it takes." Callaston looked back over the city. "I suppose one should be grateful that the primarch found a way to do whatever it takes to take this world without more bloodshed."

Serris sighed. "You have something to say Callaston?"

His fellow Space Marines said nothing. He just stood there – even without his helmet, his features were unreadable.

"Callaston?"

"Nothing that need bother you."

"Callaston, as long as I've known you, you've barely been able to shut up. Forgive my incredulity as to the notion that it was only now that the knife found your tongue?"

Callaston looked at him. "Is that a threat?"

"A threat," Serris scoffed. "Oh, I'd give a dozen worlds for a threat, if it got me outside this glorified castle." He picked up another pebble, thinking of his early years on Terra. Castles. Barbarians. Mankind reduced to savagery. A state that Serris now understood was not the destiny for the sons and daughters of Ancient Earth, but still, at times, a state he missed. Nevertheless, he shifted his gaze back to his fellow Space Marine. "Still, I'll endure your words, threat or no." He blinked. _Hell, the flower language has got to me as well._

"My words," Callaston said. He looked over the wall and sighed. "It ever occurred to you that H'klan might have not wanted liberating?"

Serris blinked. Of all the nonsense that had come out of Callaston's mouth over the years, this was perhaps the most insane question he'd ever uttered.

"We've fought xenos before," Callaston said. "Orks. K'nib. Kerex. The Luna Wolves have carried the banner of the Imperium, and the people we've liberated have been grateful for it. The Great Crusade has continued ever onwards."

"And?" Serris murmured.

"And then we come here," Callaston said. "To a world that has not known the depredations of aliens, or the ravages of the Age of Strife. We come to a healthy, functioning planet, and we declare that they're part of the Imperium now, whether they like it or not."

"That is the will of the Emperor," Serris said. "The Emperor protects."

"From what? From whom?"

"From the threat without, the alien. And the threat within of human failing. He is not a god, but he is what we can aspire to be."

Callaston scoffed. "Someone's been reading."

"The primarch bids us train mind and muscle both."

"Of course he does." Callaston leant over the wall again. "You know that the agents of the Imperial Administration are at work, no? Removing any trace of any faith on this world, so it might be replaced with the Imperial Truth."

"And?" Serris asked.

"And?" Callaston looked back at him. "Does that not strike you as wrong, in a fashion?"

Serris stared at him, the word "heresy" coming to mind. Not an accurate word, granted – heresy was a break from faith, and the Imperium was to be free of the madness of societies that uttered words such as "apostasy" or "heresy." Nevertheless, the word remained in his mind.

"The Emperor calls this the Great Crusade," Callaston said. "Do you know what a crusade is, Serris? A holy war. But he spreads the Imperial Truth, which is explicitly anti-theistic. We-"

"You have a point Callaston, get to it."

"My point?" He looked back at Serris. "My point, I suppose, is that for all the good the Emperor has done, for all his radiance, do you think he…might be blinded?"

Serris stared at him.

"I grew up on Terra like you," Callaston said. "The Emperor saved our world. Saved you, saved me." He gestured over the city. "But this isn't Terra. Nor Luna, nor Mars, nor any of the other worlds we have encountered across the stars."

"You writing a poem Callaston? Please, go on. I'm sure that the scribes on Terra would love to have you."

"Perhaps. Terra is my home. This world isn't."

"No, it isn't. You know what it is?" Serris took a step forward. "It's a world of the Imperium. It's a world of the Emperor. It is a world taken by our primarch, Horus, and the Luna Wolves. Legion Sixteen The first of the Adeptus Astartes to set out into the cold night, to liberate mankind from ignorance and strife."

Callaston scowled. "Is that _your _religion?"

Serris lunged at him. And he would have made contact with his fellow Space Marine if not for the words "Brother Serris!"

_Oh shit._

Brother-sergeant Moirai was walking over. His squad leader. A recruit from Cthonia itself, who figured that by virtue of sharing the same world as the primarch, made him in the same league, or some nonsense.

"Sparring session, Brother Serris?"

Serris glared at him, and hoped that despite the helmets they both wore, the sergeant saw it.

"Well?"

"Yes brother-sergeant. Sparring session. This world provides little other recourse to test our mettle."

"Well, that's about to change. The Imperial Army wants our squad deployed at the Sanctus Hospitalium."

"The what?"

Moirai waved his hand. "Some cathedral the locals want kept. It's being torn down. Our squad's going there to show them the future. Let them see clearly beyond their shackles."

"And thus the crusade continues," Callaston murmured.

Moirai glared at him. "Something wrong, brother?"

Callaston said nothing.

"Good. And don't let me catch you without your helmet again. The ignorant must see the champion before they see the man." He began heading down the wall, in the direction of one of the landing pads. "Now move it."

For a moment, Serris sympathized with Callaston. For a moment, doubt touched his heart – the Luna Wolves. Being deployed as a show of force to the ignorant, who, ignorance or otherwise, were about to lose something dear to them as they were incorporated into the Imperium. Into the Imperial Truth. Into the protection of the Emperor. For a moment, he wanted to speak out.

But only for a moment. After all, the Emperor protected.

And through Horus himself, he was sworn to him.


End file.
